McCormick Farm/Shenandoah Valley Agriculture Research & Extension Center — Attraction in Virginia

This was my destination this morning for a lovely motorcycle tour from Staunton to Raphine, Virginia, via Rt252 through Middlebrook and Brownsburg onto Raphine Rd. The setting is beautiful, surrounded by Blue Ridge Mountain views. Cyrus McCormick invented the mechanical reaper/harvester, advancing modern agriculture. The ride has some technical sections, and awareness is critical, as recent heavy rains washed some gravel onto the roadway in spots, at a couple curves. I was vigilant, cautious and mindful, and spotted the gravelly surface in time to take evasives. I dodged a few carrion birds in the road — twice — but traffic was light and the weather was perfect, 78f sunny and clear. The ride is about 40 miles to Raphine, and my return ride via Lee Hwy/ 11N was uneventful. There are a couple passing sections where the Hwy is 2 lanes wide, I used it to pass some slower vehicles. Check out my ride video for this Mindful Ride posted at my YouTube channel: MotoPresent: Motorcycling Mindfully! Peace, Chris...

There are two main buildings with information. The mill has restored tools and parts that would have been used to grind corn and smaller grains like wheat. They do label the parts of the mill. The workshop has a top floor with a reaper and some very intricate models. An old ad explains the parts of the machine. There is a video that gives you the history of Cyrus. On the bottom floor of the workshop is his forge with original tools.

The land had the house he lived in and the old mill pond, too. It is beautiful there. Another neat part was the half mile walk next to the mill pond and through the woods.

We had a very pleasant visit and we learned a lot. It took...

Beautiful site that includes picnic tables under shade trees. Two buildings housing antique reaper equipment and other artifacts. One building is a old blacksmith shop. Old slave quarters onsite that houses bathrooms now. There is a good sized pond on the grounds as well. I hear that oftentimes ducks and geese are in the pond. Walking on uneven ground and uneven steps is required to get to the buildings. An interpretive walking trail is inside that I did not access today. There is a seven minute audio- visual video that can be watched and listened to while in one of the buildings. Everything here is free! Quite...